Quite a restful composition. For me though, the wood doesn't stand out enough. You need more contrast on it, but it won't do it all, because it's all similar tones. Try using coloured filtration in your b&w conversion - channel mixer is a good starting place - to change the tonal values of the wood and water.
Assuming the water is bluish and the wood is...wood colour, adding more blue filtration will lighten the blue and darken the redder wood, whereas adding red will have the opposite effect (try to keep the totals of all filters at 100%, and experiment!).
Just done a mod, to up the contrast. This computer doesn't have anything complex, so can't demonstrate channel mixer.
Nick

Quite a restful composition. For me though, the wood doesn't stand out enough. You need more contrast on it, but it won't do it all, because it's all similar tones. Try using coloured filtration in your b&w conversion - channel mixer is a good starting place - to change the tonal values of the wood and water.
Assuming the water is bluish and the wood is...wood colour, adding more blue filtration will lighten the blue and darken the redder wood, whereas adding red will have the opposite effect (try to keep the totals of all filters at 100%, and experiment!).
Just done a mod, to up the contrast. This computer doesn't have anything complex, so can't demonstrate channel mixer.

I'm somewhat reluctant to comment for fear of marital strife. ;)
Have you asked your husband why he dislikes the shot? If his reasons are more concrete than "It's not my cup of tea", it might give you something to think about, even though you disagree. And sometimes, if you have a certain sort of personality, pushing back against criticism can help you to be more confident that you were right in the first place! :) A gentler version is to imagine yourself explaining to him why this is a good photograph -- thinking about that kind of thing can only help you when you next have an opportunity to take this kind of photo.
I like this kind of shot, and I like them in black and white. I like the way they bridge between representational and abstract art: it's a photo of an object you found but, at the same time, you're showing it to us (I assume) because you like the shapes and the contrast of textures. I would have taken this differently, getting down lower and using a wider aperture to let the water fade out of focus. Other people might use a strong neutral density and a long exposure to make the water look smooth and ghostly. These approaches are different but not necessarily better -- again, think about whether they would be better, in your eyes, than yours. That's win-win for you: either you like another way more or, next time you shoot one of these, you'll shoot it in a way that further emphasizes the things you like about this one. An advantage of your relatively high viewpoint and narrow aperture is that you've kept the texture of the water through the whole shot. (The high viewpoint means that the back of the shot is closer to the camera so you need less depth of field to keep everything sharp.)
One thing I would suggest is that more contrast would help. Essentially, the whole photograph is in the mid-tones, with very little in the darker or brighter tones: the histogram shows this very clearly. (If you don't know how to read a histogram, just ask -- it can be a really useful tool.) In a sense, contrast is the black-and-white equivalent of vivid colours: it adds punch to the photograph and makes it stand out. As illuvator says, shooting later in the day would have helped that, by lengthening the shadows.
Five-word summary: increase contrast and think lots. :)
Dave.

I'm somewhat reluctant to comment for fear of marital strife.

Have you asked your husband why he dislikes the shot? If his reasons are more concrete than "It's not my cup of tea", it might give you something to think about, even though you disagree. And sometimes, if you have a certain sort of personality, pushing back against criticism can help you to be more confident that you were right in the first place! A gentler version is to imagine yourself explaining to him why this is a good photograph -- thinking about that kind of thing can only help you when you next have an opportunity to take this kind of photo.

I like this kind of shot, and I like them in black and white. I like the way they bridge between representational and abstract art: it's a photo of an object you found but, at the same time, you're showing it to us (I assume) because you like the shapes and the contrast of textures. I would have taken this differently, getting down lower and using a wider aperture to let the water fade out of focus. Other people might use a strong neutral density and a long exposure to make the water look smooth and ghostly. These approaches are different but not necessarily better -- again, think about whether they would be better, in your eyes, than yours. That's win-win for you: either you like another way more or, next time you shoot one of these, you'll shoot it in a way that further emphasizes the things you like about this one. An advantage of your relatively high viewpoint and narrow aperture is that you've kept the texture of the water through the whole shot. (The high viewpoint means that the back of the shot is closer to the camera so you need less depth of field to keep everything sharp.)

One thing I would suggest is that more contrast would help. Essentially, the whole photograph is in the mid-tones, with very little in the darker or brighter tones: the histogram shows this very clearly. (If you don't know how to read a histogram, just ask -- it can be a really useful tool.) In a sense, contrast is the black-and-white equivalent of vivid colours: it adds punch to the photograph and makes it stand out. As illuvator says, shooting later in the day would have helped that, by lengthening the shadows.

I agree with pretty much everybody - apart from your husband ! It's a good idea with a simple eye catching composition. Contrast is indeed the issue here and Sooty's idea would work nicely, as would the black and white layer in Photoshop pumping up the reds/yellows a bit and pumping down (?) the blues. Taking this at a different time of day would give you better light but you may find shadows that you would have to incorporate into your composition somehow. As far as the composition goes I might trim a little off of frame right to balance it and my head keeps wanting to rotate it clockwise to make it as symmetrical and straight as possible. In summary, a good idea which is the most important thing - perhaps not quite ready for framing yet ;)

I agree with pretty much everybody - apart from your husband ! It's a good idea with a simple eye catching composition. Contrast is indeed the issue here and Sooty's idea would work nicely, as would the black and white layer in Photoshop pumping up the reds/yellows a bit and pumping down (?) the blues. Taking this at a different time of day would give you better light but you may find shadows that you would have to incorporate into your composition somehow. As far as the composition goes I might trim a little off of frame right to balance it and my head keeps wanting to rotate it clockwise to make it as symmetrical and straight as possible. In summary, a good idea which is the most important thing - perhaps not quite ready for framing yet

Sorry - I'm with your husband. Can't really see the point of the composition and all the grey tones are so similar giving a very flat effect. Would work better with a more angular composition and some dramatic lighting to give impact and contrast.
(Just shows how subjective images are.)
Paul

Sorry - I'm with your husband. Can't really see the point of the composition and all the grey tones are so similar giving a very flat effect. Would work better with a more angular composition and some dramatic lighting to give impact and contrast.